Testimonials

Michelle Alexander, author of the best-selling book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, discussing Tim Wise’s work:

“What Tim Wise has brilliantly done is to challenge white folks…to see that they have a responsibility to do more than sit back and watch, but to recognize their own role in co-creating what is either a fair, inclusive, truly democratic society or a society that is predicated on indifference towards those who are labeled as ‘others’…”
—Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in an Age of Colorblindness and professor of law, Ohio State University

“Tim Wise is a spellbinding herald of anti-racism. His voice resonates especially with young people of all races who represent a generational shift away from the racial toxins and taboos that have been a blot on American democracy.”
—Stephen Steinberg, Distinguished Professor of Urban Studies, Queens College & the Graduate Center, CUNY; Author of Race Relations: A Critique and The Ethnic Myth

“Tim Wise is one of the few people, along with perhaps Frederick Douglass, who has ever really spoken honestly and forcefully to white people about themselves…”
—Charles Ogletree, Professor of Law, Harvard Law School; Director, Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice

“Tim Wise is one of the most brilliant, articulate and courageous critics of white privilege in the nation. His considerable rhetorical skills, his fluid literary gifts and his relentless search for the truth make him a critical ally in the fight against racism and a true soldier in the war for social justice. His writing and thinking constitute a bulwark of common sense, and uncommon wisdom, on the subject of race, politics and culture. He is a national treasure.”
—Michael Eric Dyson, University Professor, Georgetown University, and best-selling author of nine books, including, Race Rules, Holler if You Hear Me, and Between God and Gangsta Rap

“Tim Wise is a vanilla brother in the tradition of John Brown…a truth-teller and long distance freedom-fighter…whose fight against White Supremacy is exemplary and inspiring!”
—Cornel West, author, philosopher

“The fate of this country depends on whites like yourself speaking the truth to those who don’t want to hear it. In this, you are as one with the Biblical prophets. You are more likely to be condemned than lauded, and yet your words are no less important. So, keep speaking out. At the very least, some future archeologists sifting through the ashes of this civilization may be able to find evidence that there were some who offered truth as a cure for the disease that destroyed us.”
—Derrick Bell, late professor of law, New York University, and one of the world’s leading scholars on race and the legal system, as well as best-selling author of several books on race, email to Wise, June, 2004

“Tim Wise is one of those rare ‘public intellectuals’ that numerous authors have suggested are becoming extinct in this society. He is evidence that this is not the case…in my judgment, he is the very best of the white anti-racism writers and commentators working in the U.S. media today…”
—Joe Feagin, Graduate Research Professor of Sociology, Texas A&M, and author of over twenty books on race issues

“(Wise’s) work is revolutionary, and those who react negatively are simply afraid of hearing the truth…”
—Robin D.G. Kelley, Professor of History, University of Southern California, author of Race Rebels, and Yo’ Mama’s Disfunktional!

“One of the brilliant voices of our time.”
—Molefi Kete Asante, Professor of African American Studies, Temple University, author of several dozen books on race, history and culture, and creator of the first doctoral program in African American Studies in the U.S.

“(His) is the clearest thinking on race I’ve seen in a long while written by a white writer…right up there with the likes of historians Howard Zinn and Herb Aptheker as far as I’m concerned.”
—Dr. Joyce King, Benjamin Mays Endowed Chair for Urban Teaching, Learning and Leadership, Georgia State University

“I have admired your activism and scholarship for years. This spring, I attended a talk you gave at Occidental College…I was co-teaching a course and students were urged to attend. Afterwards, I noticed a transformation in my students’ attitudes…I found them infinitely more receptive, open-minded and critical, and there was a direct correlation between hearing you speak and their progress. I wanted to let you know the impact your work has– thanks for being such a motivating force toward social transformation.”
—Laura Kuo, Visiting Assistant Professor of Women’s Studies, Pomona College, e-mail to Wise, May, 2002.

“When I saw a white male get up to speak about racism, I had reservations. But you knocked me over, (and) not just because you are a forceful speaker. What it was, was seeing a young white male picking up the torch and committing himself to the struggle.”
—B. Allan Benson, Director Rocky Mountain Office, National Labor Relations Board, letter to Wise, January, 1999

“Tim challenged and invigorated our students…You could hear a pin drop…Never have I seen a speaker keep 400 high school students so captivated…He was awesome!!”
—Darren Ford, multicultural coordinator, and Allison Hamilton, VP Student Government, The McDonough School, McDonough, Maryland, April 16, 1996

“You are to be commended for your brave stance against apartheid. If more young people followed your lead, the world would be a better place…”
—Whoopi Goldberg, letter to Wise during Tulane anti-apartheid hunger strike, 4/90

And a Few Special Compliments

“No, I won’t debate him. He is a leftist extremist…”
—Neo-Nazi, David Duke, explaining to a New Orleans radio station why he wouldn’t debate Wise on-air, 5/91

“(Wise is) my Jewish supremacist detractor…following the old Jewish tactic of divide and conquer…people like Wise actually hate all European ethnic groups. They seek to divide us and weaken us in our quest for our heritage and rights.”
—David Duke, email to a question posed about Wise by a third party, forwarded to Wise, December 30, 2002

“Tim Wise is pretty much the Uncle Tom of whites…”
—Dinesh D’Souza, best-selling conservative author, during debates with Wise at San Francisco State and Evergreen State College, apparently frustrated with losing both, Oct/Nov, 1996

“People like Tim Wise are anti-white hate merchants…carefully selected as a front man by the Jewish deception engineers…He appears to be just another white male…But Tim Wise is a member of that very special nation–the nation/religion/race which owns virtually the entire media of the Western world.”
–From fliers of the neo-Nazi Euro-American Student Union, distributed during Wise speeches in Washington State, 10/98

“Tim Wise is an agent of this (Jewish) subversion of the integrity of the majority (white) group…”
—From flyer of the neo-Nazi National Alliance (Seattle chapter), “The Real Interests of Tim Wise, Anti-White Propagandist,” January, 2003

“It is white race traitor scum such as you who sicken this country. You obviously hate that you are white and are willing to sell your heritage for a piece of the nigger/kike pie…Your time is limited and you know it…the Jews seem to be behind you, lubing you up and you have no problem with it…You’re guilty of all the ungodly characteristics of a Jew.”
—Assorted comments to or about Wise by members of the National Association for the Advancement of White People (NAAWP), on the NAAWP Internet message board, March 1999.

“You are a very destructive individual…racial paranoia is an industry, and its too bad people with your intelligence seem to feel obligated to make it a growth industry as well…your analysis is intellectually paranoid.”
—David Horowitz, leading conservative author, activist, and amateur psychologist, during e-mail exchanges with Wise in which he claimed there were “no racial barriers” still in existence for blacks in America, September, 2000.

“You anarchists know minorities are too dumb to run a business: that’s why you support overthrowing the system…you are full of shit asswipe…you are really a colored-loving commie bastard aren’t you?”
—Andreas Munger, very angry white man, e-mail to Wise, March, 2000

“You may not be a communist, but you’re definitely a Marxist!”
—Babs Minhinette Wilson, former National Information Director, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, to Wise during anti-David Duke rally, Louisiana state capitol, Baton Rouge, March, 1989

“He’s viciously anti-white and anti-American. Why doesn’t he speak about the things that are good with America?”
—Acalanes High School (Lafayette, CA) parent, protesting Wise’s speech there, March, 1998

“I don’t think you recognize your power. I think you could stand on a table in the lunchroom, and tell the students to burn the building down, and they might do it.”
—An actual statement to Wise by Harry Brunson, Assistant Principal, Hillsboro High School (Nashville), March, 1985, when Wise, then 16, blasted the school’s dress code in the underground campus paper.